The Rukh and the influence of Chinese mythology

Abstract

The Rukh bird that was mentioned in the Arabian Nights became popular in the West due to the Venetian traveller Marco Polo (1254–1324) who referred to it in his travel account. Though Marco Polo did not claim to see the Rukh himself, he narrated what Arab navigators described as a giant bird that appeared near the island of Madagascar (Polo in The travels of Marco Polo the Venetian, 1914) (McElroy observes that in southern part of Madagascar, ‘near Isalo, exploerers still found the giant eggs of the roc, the great elephant bird….’ (McElroy in Over the lip of the World: among the storytellers of Madagascar, 2001) or Aepyornis, which is believed to be the source of the Rukh’s myth). Other travellers like Ibn Baţūţah (c.1304–c.1377) stated that the bird had the reputation of attacking ships whenever it saw them. Previous studies emphasized the link between the Persian Simurgh and the Rukh, but this article argues that the Rukh has been influenced by Chinese mythology especially by the P‘eng bird, while the Arabs’ oral tradition is indirectly associated with the Rukh through a number of traditional practices and rituals popular in the early twentieth century. Further, the article provides textual evidence that assist in further understanding some Arabian Nights tales.